Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

This is a compulsory course for all mages.

But since Charles has taken action, she can take it easy for now. At least as long as she can prevent Charles, who is hiding in the secret room, from running away.

Thinking of this, Lacie looked at Charles and winked.

Charles understood immediately, walked past Joseph, and placed his hand on the iron door in front of the three people, which seemed to be quite sturdy.

Then he pressed it.

The steel could not bear the heavy load, making constant creaking sounds and producing exaggerated deformations.

Under Charles' extraordinary strength, the iron door was like paper and was easily twisted and bent, and was torn off the wall in the scattered smoke and dust.

After putting the entire iron door aside, Charles led Rachel and Joseph into the room.

The furnishings in the room were quite consistent with Lacie's stereotype of "intelligence traders".

The floor was covered with precious carpets from Bharata, the air was filled with the scent of some rare spices that were more valuable than gold by weight, and the furniture was made of rare and fine wood on the market, and was filled with collections collected from all over the continent.

And in this secret room, the owner of this tavern, the intelligence businessman Charles, sat among these good things that he had spent most of his life collecting.

He is thin and dark-skinned, like a child who has not grown up. Only his small, rolling eyes, loose, wrinkled skin and facial features that are so cunning that people don't want to approach him can make people believe that he is not a naughty child.

Charles the Rat is one of the most successful intelligence dealers in all of Kangkol.

This room full of collections is the best proof of this.

However, the three of them noticed that there were large gaps between many of the collections placed one after another, as if there were originally other things placed between them, but recently their owners had suddenly had the urge to put them away.

Then the problem is coming-

Where did the missing collections go?

If you don't understand, ask. Joseph reached out and touched the surface of the shelf, then retracted his hand, looked at his spotless fingertips, and smiled:

"It seems that you have already found a way out for yourself, Charles."

The intelligence dealer, who has become a turtle in a jar and cannot escape, can only play dumb:

"Mr. Joseph, I don't understand what you mean."

"Why did part of the collection in this room disappear inexplicably?" Joseph walked from the shelf to Charles' side, picked up the failed warp spell scroll in front of the rat, and asked, "Also, the spell scroll in front of you...if I'm not mistaken, the effect is warp, right?"

He grinned, took off the battle axe from his back, and weighed it in his hand:

"If you can't explain the reasons to us clearly, I will ask my good brother, this battle axe that has been with me for many years, to ask you for me."

Upon hearing this, Charles glanced unconsciously at the battle axe in Joseph's hand, and a fleeting fear flashed in his eyes.

But he soon regained his composure.

He first gave Joseph a flattering smile and said:

"Don't worry, Mr. Joseph. I promise - I promise that you will get a satisfactory answer from me today."

Then, he turned his head and looked at Charles, his expression and tone becoming more flattering:

"My dear hero, I know why you came to me. Please rest assured that I will tell you all the information you want to know!"

Finally, he turned his gaze to Lacielle again.

Perhaps his ability was not enough to allow him to access the information containing Rachel's true identity, or perhaps he thought that as long as he could deal with Joseph and Charles, he would have escaped.

In short, he didn't even dare to talk to Lacie.

Lacey didn't mind.

She just stood beside Charles with a smile on her face, holding his arm, like a real, gentle and lovely little wife.

Of course the young wife had to follow her husband's lead and listen to him, so she said nothing - even though she was the biggest victim of the assassination, she left the decision to Charles.

Charles remained noncommittal about Charles's answer.

"Tell me," he whispered, "what's going on?"

The intelligence businessman couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and even felt secretly delighted - but he concealed this emotion very well, and it was difficult for ordinary people to see it.

Then, with his superb acting skills, he pretended to look sad and gloomy, and sighed:

"Mr. Joseph, and Mr. Brave, in fact, I don't have the right to choose this matter at all! I am also a victim! I did provide you with false information, but...if I didn't provide you with false information, then I..."

He paused and suddenly began to take off his clothes.

The three of them wanted to see what this guy was up to, so no one tried to stop him.

The rat quickly took off his expensive robe, revealing his skinny upper body.

On the chest and back of the huge rat, the three of them suddenly saw criss-crossing scars and brands.

These scars and marks make it hard not to think that this thin intelligence businessman had recently endured torture and abuse that ordinary people could hardly imagine.

The fact seemed to be the same. Before the three of them could ask where these scars and marks came from, Charles was the first to cry:

"Not long ago, after you, the Brave One, were assassinated, a group of people came to me and kidnapped me!"

"After they kidnapped me, they locked me in a dark room. Without saying anything, they whipped me and burned me with a red-hot iron. They tortured me to the point that I almost died."

"After torturing me for several days, the group finally told me that they wanted me to hand over the information that 'the assassin who assassinated the brave man came from Victoria' to Mr. Joseph. If I didn't do it, I would suffer even more cruel torture than those days."

"so……"

Charles kicked over the chair, lay on the ground, and crawled all the way to Charles' feet, wanting to grab Charles' trouser legs and beg for mercy:

"Mr. Brave! Mr. Joseph! I really have no choice! I don't want to give you false information, but if I don't do this, they will definitely kill me!"

To be honest, Charles looked quite pitiful.

He was thin and small, covered with bruises, and was crying bitterly as he repented. If we put aside that old face that would instinctively make people feel disgusted, it would be hard to blame him anymore.

But Rachel is not human.

She is a witch - how can a witch, an extraordinarily immortal species suspected to be related to a previous civilization, be simply classified as human?

So she asked with a smile:

"Then can you tell us who asked you to bring false information to Joseph?"

When I asked her, she seemed to have suddenly thought of something, so she added two more sentences:

"Are you afraid that group of people will retaliate against you? That's unreasonable. As long as you tell us who that group of people is, we can set out right now and wipe out that group of people right away."

"Don't forget, Ciel is a hero. I can promise you on his behalf that as long as you tell us the identity of that group of people, we will definitely guarantee your personal safety. How about this? This is the promise of a hero. You should know how much weight a hero's promise carries, right? So what are you still worried about?"

"Go ahead," her tone even became gentle, "Don't be afraid, everything will be fine."

The big rat was stunned.

He opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to say.

Laceel narrowed her eyes upon seeing this, and her azure blue pupils became narrow and long, like a fox, cunning and a little dangerous.

"Hmm?" She tilted her head. "Why don't you say it?"

Immediately, without waiting for the rat to respond, she continued:

"Of course, you don't have to say anything. You certainly have the right to remain silent, but I also have the right to think that you are hiding something by keeping silent. After all, that is the hero's promise. Isn't it easy for a hero to protect someone? He should not have failed in this regard, right?"

As she spoke, she asked with interest in a cute nasal voice:

"Ok?"

Perhaps he had been forced into a situation where he could no longer retreat, and he really couldn't think of how to refute Laciel -

As Rachel said, the hero's promise is indeed reassuring. As long as the hero has promised something, he will try his best to complete it even if it costs his life. Besides...

"Besides, I only dare you to bring false information to Joseph. The group that tried to drive the wolf to swallow the tiger is unlikely to be able to confront Charles head-on. Otherwise, why would they use such a despicable trick? Right? So just tell me the identity of that group."

Laceel even gave him a final blow:

"And you don't have to worry about 'not remembering' or 'not knowing' the identity of that group of people. As it happens, I have a spell that can help you 'recall' the identity of that group of people. As long as you are willing, I can help you at any time."

She waved the magic wand in her hand at the rat, smiling so sweetly.

The big rat is finally being driven crazy.

As the saying goes, even rabbits will bite when they are angry. Of course, a rat is not a rabbit, but it is not much different from a rabbit. When it is angry, it will also bite.

Laceier blocked all his escape routes. He had nowhere to retreat, like a mouse that was chased and trapped in a corner. Facing the aggressive hostess holding a broom, he could only jump up and open his mouth to show his ferocious teeth.

"The brave man clearly... clearly failed!" Charles fought back, "He couldn't even protect Miss Rachel!"

As soon as the words were spoken, everything became silent.

Lacie thought, “Oh no!”

[To be continued]

-

12. Rat Collection

In order to prevent Charles from getting so angry that he beat the only person who knew the truth to death on the spot, Lacelle gave the rat a quick death.

After a truth-telling spell was cast, the intelligence dealer who had been trying to resist stubbornly instantly became obedient.

He told the three of them everything he knew—

The assassin did not come from Victoria, but from the Black Tomb.

As for what the Black Tomb is...

The new-school wizards were committed to revolutionizing the world with fire, so they jointly built a white tower that seemed to reach from heaven to earth. On the contrary, the old-school wizards, who were unwilling to see the arrival of a new era and were still indulging in the glory of the past, dug underground, hung the wizard tower upside down, painted it black, and turned it into a "tomb" to clarify their position.

Simply put, the Black Tomb is a loose organization that was born in contrast to the White Tower.

Although those high-ranking wizards disliked each other, they had to form an alliance and act for common interests under the threat of new wizards and the White Tower.

The wizard masters of the Black Tomb generally despise the new-school wizards and the White Tower, believing that they tarnish the noble nature of magic. They also look down on mortals. After all, in the old times, mortals were nothing more than slaves of the wizards and consumables for their experiments.

"That makes sense," Lacier said with a subtle expression, "Those old guys in the Black Tomb probably want to stir up a dispute between the Brave Squad and Victoria."

Then, she added:

"Although we are both enemies, in the eyes of those old guys in the Black Tomb, there is actually a fundamental difference between us in the White Tower and Victoria."

"After all, although there are ideological disputes between the Black Tomb and the White Tower, they are all mages in the final analysis. In the magic reform at the beginning of the White Tower, the truly vicious criminals were almost all eliminated, and the remaining ones were all moderate. Therefore, from the beginning to the end, the contradictions between the Black Tomb and the White Tower, the new and old mages, have never intensified to the point where they cannot be reconciled."

"But Victoria is different."

"Those old guys in the Black Tomb believe that the White Tower should not allow the rise of the Mortal Empire, because they firmly believe that mortals have usurped the authority that originally belonged to the mages, and they cannot tolerate their former slaves and consumables being on an equal footing with them."

Lacier paused here and sighed softly:

"At least as far as I know, since the establishment of the Black Tomb organization, those old-school mages have been trying their best to destroy Victoria. And this time... sending assassins to kill Ciel and then blaming Victoria... is also in line with their usual style of doing things at all costs."

So Victoria's emperor did not deceive - or rather, he simply did not bother to deceive Cecilia.

He never sent an assassin to kill Ciel.

The mastermind, the real culprit behind the scenes is someone else.

"Black Tomb..." Rachel muttered the name silently, then turned to look at Charles, "But this truth shouldn't affect our subsequent trip to Victoria, right?"

Charles nodded silently.

He didn't need to say anything, Laciel knew what he meant -

Even if it wasn't Victoria who sent the assassin to kill him, the one who knew the truth about the death of the previous hero was related to the disaster that destroyed his hometown, and even involved the destruction and inheritance of the previous civilization...

It is still the mortal empire called Victoria.

As a brave man, no matter which of these three things it is for, he needs to go to Victoria.

Since Charles has decided to go, there is no way that Lacele will be a cowardly lizard.

She would definitely go with Charles.

As for the Black Tomb assassin's assassination of Charles...

Lacie's lips curled up imperceptibly.